Nara vs Nandamuri - Mahanadu family politics

TDP National President and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu has established himself as a political leader. While it is possible for him to change the family politics in his favour, the topic of NTR's successor in the TDP always raises a lot of speculation.

On one hand, Nandamuri's family grew to the level of influence while Nara family gained the political assertive. However, the combination of both the families would surely create a strong powerful party.

This year's TDP Mahanadu witnessed the absence of the Nandamuri family and reasons are being speculated behind their deision to give the event a miss. The party leaders are being questioned on their absence as none of the members from the Nandamuri family, even Balakrishna attended the 3-day TDP conclave.

Particularly, TDP's political bureau member Harikrishna also missed out on the Mahanadu. In the past, Chandrababu had led the party with Harikrishna and Junior NTR by his side. Now, however, things have changed as the father-son duo are hardly seen in any of the TDP party activities.

While Harikrishna was a part of the invite list, Jr NTR has reportedly not been invited which was done so that his popularity doesn't clash with what Nara Lokesh has built for himself amongst the party.

Despite being Hindupur MLA, Balakrishna didn't attend the Mahanadu and questions are being raised whether the actor was busy with the shoot of his next movie, even so, whether the shoot held more importance than the TDP Mahanadu.

Reports suggest that Balakrishna is said to have been upset over the government's approach to the development of Hindupur and its water supply. The Hindupur MLA believes that the TDP government has not responded properly and has not come to the Hindupur constituency in the last six months.

The party leaders are hoping that Balakrishna and Harikrishna make an appearance on the last day of the Mahanadu.

While the Nara family are dominating the political field, they had, once been in the shadows of the Nandamuri clan.

Chandrababu Naidu had in fact started out in a nominal role in the Telugu Desam Party, three and a half decades ago and gradually progressed to play an active role. NTR who led the party had brought Chandrababu forward to protect the party.

From the single identity of NTR, Chandrababu has now become the source of leadership within TDP and succeeded in building a strong cadre by the districts. His tactics have changed over time to save the party during the turbulent times.

Having introduced a number of schemes to reach the public in nine years as the Joint Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Nandamuri's family members faced with the pressure of leadership change of Chandrababu to overcome the demands of each party.

Chandrababu, gradually demonstrated undue domination in the Cabinet and surpassed the Nara rule bringing on his governance. Nevertheless, Chandrababu cannot control his family politics and can't go beyond the party president's post.

Initially NTR's descendants were forced to withdraw from the Krishna district party activists to get the party's reins. Harikrishna has repeatedly demanded that the party be the same as NTR for his heirs as well and to give the position of CM to Balayya, or TDP working president.

Every time the NTR's successor demanded to recover the successor, Chandrababu made his move which impacted the NTR's descendants due to their lack of unity. Balakrishna denounced Harikrishna's advertisements to support Chandrababu who eventually succeeded in reducing the unity between the brothers and sisters of the Nandamuri clan.

Harikrishna and Jr NTR have been kicked off against the party. At one stage, Chandrababu split in TDP activists in Vijayawada and Krishna districts to bear unilateral status. There were allegations that Harikrishna and Co have encouraged some TDP leaders to join the PCC claiming that the eligibility to call the leader, the right to be given to none other than NTR.

The circumstances of the NTR's succession have arisen in the face of personal criticism of one another. Balakrishna is in a long overdue position when it comes to the succession of succession.

Chandrababu shocked the devoted party workers with his tactics towards the family of NTR who fought a fierce struggle for succession. Eventually Harikrishna, who disagreed with the Chandrababu, left the demands of succession.

NTR's descendants may have not been mature and lacked political experience. Every time Harikrishna comes back, the party workers hope it is to take over the reins of TDP. But reports suggest that he has put pressure on Chandrababu to give him a political breakthrough.

Chandrababu who had contested from Congress in 1983 faced defeat and later joined the Telugu Desam with the changed political equations. Since then, the party has become a key element in the state and government. Chandrababu played a crucial role of protecting the party during the dismantling of NTR's government by Nandendras Bhaskara Rao. Subsequently, Chandrababu served as minister in the NTR Cabinet and was crucial in strengthening the party institution.

Despite working on training programs for party cadre, TDP still continued to carry out similar programs. Following which, Chandrababu got hold on the party and rose to power in 1994 emerging as the second Power Center.

Chandrababu has been president of the Telugu Desam since the August 1995 crisis. TDP party reinforced the chief minister's responsibilities on him simultaneously which was supported by the Nandamuri family.

After Chandrababu became Chief Minister, Nandamuri's successor, Harikrishna was taken into the cabinet. Without getting elected as MLA, Harikrishna was appointed as Transport Minister but was pushed further away from the Cabinet. This led to the personal and professional rift between the two families along with a split in TDP which eventually resulted in the end of the Nara-Nandamuri combination.